Thursday, February 28, 2013

India Visit : Packing

I don't know what irks me more than packing my bag before my travel, maybe having a shave once a week, but then you can postpone the latter but the former has to be done.

With 2 more days to go, I think it is about time I will myself to get that shit packed. Though it aint as bad a bitch as it was when I was leaving Pune. But even then the entire charade is energy sapping to say the least. Well enough of bitching about this, I know this doesn't help my cause. It has to be done one way or the other!

My travel plans were solidified only a week ago and I like that in a way. That means by the time people know that I am travelling to India; it is too late to demand for stuff to be brought back. No I am not rude to anybody,  I kind of encouraged each one to go ahead and have those items shipped to me. Hell, I even ordered stuff myself for my sis so that I don't go back empty handed. But (un)fortunately a storm seem to hit the Midwest not too long ago, disrupting shipments and delaying them. Chances are a few of my other friends will have to just pick up my slack and get stuff to India when they travel later in the year.

The resistance is not about carrying stuff back home, but the fact that when it comes to gifts, especially to parents, they want you to choose it. It is some weird kind of notion that what I select might just give them an indication of where I stand as far as loving them is concerned. Same applies to my sis as well, but then she is much more grounded and knows that her bro just can't handle this. So she very deftly compiled a list and sent it to me (which as I explained in the last paragraph, might get delayed! <devilish laugh>!!). The sum total of this is that, I will have to raid the duty free store at the Mumbai airport if I am expecting to have an incident free stay at home.

Thankfully the weather seems encouraging as we head into Friday and my flights starting early morning Saturday should be on-time. I have got a 10 hr overlay at New Jersey and I am still deciding if I should ask a friend of mine to pick me up and entertain me till my flight is due. The thing is, I have kinda lost contact with him since he married (which I presume bachelors do to every other married friend, I am now thinking it's out of jealousy more than anything else). What complicates matters (in my mind only) is that now he is a proud father and I am not sure how to conduct myself around a kid who can barely hold his head. But then if I don't end up getting free wifi at the terminal, I might as well hit him up albeit reluctantly. I don't really want to disturb his 'Garden of Eden' together with the kid!!!

I think this is enough for now. I will start packing, I mean atleast planning the packing in my mind. I wanted to say 'mentally' there instead of 'in my mind', but then that sounded psychotic to me. LOL!

P.S: I hope I didn't mess up the usage of 'former and latter' in the very first paragraph of the blog!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Read 4 for 2013: A is for Alibi – Sue Grafton

After 'American Gods' I needed something to cool me down, though I see that in my last blog I referenced it as 'warm down' but it was not correct after all. Flipping through the myriad books which I already have on my Kindle (fortunately!), I picked this one up. The title for one was eye-catching and also the fact that this is a part of an 'Alphabet Mysteries' series starting with 'A is for Alibi' going on all the way up to 'V is for Vengeance'. Tiresome it may seem to read 22 novels but then I had to start somewhere.

The 'Alphabet Series' chronicles the cases of one Kinsey Millhone, a private investigator (PI) in Santa Theresa. I guess you can get the rest from Wiki anyways. Talking about the book at hand, I must say I was not impressed. It started out well, the crime seemed to be intricate with both the alibi and the motive overlapping, and however the twist in the plot was both pre-meditated and forceful. It was something like – well now that 85% of the novel is done, lets twist it up. To spice things up in the middle, there were steaming sexual encounters between Kinsey and the 'would be' culprit of the crime, so very convenient. With the only trait of the 'culprit' which I could catch was his 'sexual energy'!!!

The narrative is in the first person, and personally speaking that exasperates me to no end. The novel ends with:

Respectfully submitted,

Kinsey Millhone

- making the whole novel into a report which left a bad taste in my mouth. There isn't enough action in this one and the shooting of the culprit by Kinsey in self-defense is more of an anti-climax. There has to be a term like 'chick-films' applied to books/novels as well, right?

However I never intended this to be out of the world, I was looking at it as a stop gap and I must admit, this book did do that. So all in all it did serve its purpose. Nowhere was it dragging on with unnecessary characters eating up the plot and not leading anywhere.

But the fact remains - be it Evanovich's Stephanie Plum or Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, I have not been entertained. Then again I have read only the first installment in both these series. I will be thinking very hard though about when should I get to the second books of any of these series.

Next read: Oath of the Vayuputras : Amish Tripathi

This is the big one, yes the culmination of the Shiva Trilogy and what luck that I will be in India when this one is released. My pre-ordered copy has already shipped to my Pune address. I was thinking of reading a book during my journey to India, but I guess I will let the in-flight entertainment do its thing for me – the air-stewardess' included!!! LOL!!!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Read 3 for 2013: American Gods – Neil Gaiman

There is something about Neil Gaiman's writing, which draws you to it. I guess it has to do about the surreal nature of his stories. It is a kind of a fairy tale narration which makes unearthly beings- no not the ET kind, but more the angels, demons and gods - seem tangible, real. There is a certain flow to the prose which make his novels very hard to set down – like you cannot determine whether this right here would be a logical stop or should I indulge a bit more and postpone my lunch for just a bit more. Before I read American Gods, Gaiman wove his magic for me through 'Stardust' and then the 'Anansi Boys'.

American Gods is full of metaphors. It is a difficult read mind you. There were times galore when I had to resort to Wiki to better appreciate what was being conveyed. This is not your typical day at the park read, but more of an academic pursuit if you would want to appreciate the true nature of the plot. At the end of it all you come off the wiser. You need such a mind bender once a while, just to assure you that you can still take the heavy stuff apart from the hubris of those run of the mill thrillers.

America is what the immigrants made off it. Each set of people who came to this land for whatever reason, brought with them their beliefs, their cultures and most importantly their Gods. They worshipped their Gods, appeasing them with whatever rituals they conjured up. The Gods fed on these and attained their strengths. As time passed on these Gods were forgotten. Newer Gods came to the fore, like the God of the railroad, Goddess of Media, God of the plastic money. As the new Gods grew in prominence, the old Gods were forgotten and grew weak in this land of opportunity. This was when the All-Father Odin and Loki set out a plan to regain their strengths and be more powerful than they ever were.

The Gods of whatever kinds I mention above all have human traits in the narrative which is where the metaphors come in. Each metaphor has to be carefully understood to take in the true extent of what is being talked about. The protagonist is a guy named Shadow who is later revealed to be Odin's son and a pawn in this whole game; however there sure are surprises in store.

The narrative is interspersed with stories which date back to the first settlers who made their way to America and details their trials and tribulations as they settled in this new land with stories about their Gods. 

I did lose my way in between because I must say that this one requires you to be on your toes. If you can do that then when everything comes together at the end and when the trick is revealed a sense of fulfillment runs over you. You just cannot wait but tip your hat to the story-teller that is Neil Gaiman!

Next read : A is for Alibi – Sue Grafton.

A pacey crime thriller is just right to warm me down after this.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Culinary Narcissism



The whistle goes off for the 4th time and I patiently take note, waiting for the count to go all the way to 6. Cholle are to be prepared tonight, a culinary delight you say, well just another night's dinner!!! In the 22 months I have spent in the US, I think my culinary skills have come a long way. Gone are the days when I used to brag about 'boiled eggs' being my speciality. Right from taking lessons about how exactly onions are to be cut so as to save effort including the tricks such that you dont end up with watering eyes, I think I have come to love cooking - I mean the way I do it. I am after all a narcissist.  

There is a certain kind of simplicity to it all. The one basic principle being - leave the shit on the gas  long enough for it to cook. Well experts would say that there is little more to cooking than that, but for now I that is my one guiding principle. 

It is an act of creation, out of sheer approximation, where the law of diminishing averages does not apply. I graduated from the boiled eggs to the batata bhaji, moving on to cholle, chavli and finally relishing the occasional sadha varan bhat. Have recently indulged in sabudana khichadi, which sans the ground peanuts is not that palatable.

Next up is 3 weeks of downtime, as I visit India and give my culinary pursuits a break. I am sure however much I brag, my mom isn't going to give me control of her kitchen, lest I desecrate the holy place. I do think I will get them around to taste atleast one meal made by yours truly!!! 

Post that I might just get on with tweaking recipes like my good friend trumspringa does. Did anybody mention how I wish I could get around making my own chapatis, maybe the trip back home would help me get that sorted out one way or the other!!! ;)


Friday, February 15, 2013

"You gotta be kidding me, right!!!??!!!"

More often than not I end up wondering how Life does what it does. Does it have that magician's hat from where it conjures up stuff, some to amaze me, while quite a few just to catch me off guard?

I am sure each one of you feels the same way. It is as if we are all sitting in the same amphitheater watching Life's Magic Show. The acts are not pre-planned, they are intuitive.  There are acts of disappearing, re-appearing that too with a whole gamut of emotions. Just when you think that all the tricks are done, there is this one thing which springs up and each one of us is like "You gotta be kidding me, right!!!??!!"

You just cannot prepare and be ready. You are reduced to a rabbit that has to cross the road each day for the carrot field is on the other side and pray that it doesn't get caught in the headlights of a passing trailer. The surprise comes when the rabbit doesn't get caught in the headlights but rather is hit by lightning as it makes the daily round trip, his last words "You gotta be kidding me, right!!!!??!!!"

As I wade through my life experiences I cannot help but tip my hat to Life and say, "Damn, you sure are a helluva of a player!" It's a peculiar game where you don't lose but learn. You are not knocked down, but helped up -ready and charged up for round 2. Be sure you don't make the same mistakes again because Life is not going to step back and say, "You gotta be kidding me, right!!!??!!" it will just go through you and wait for you to stand back up, again!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Read 2 for 2013: The Book Thief: Mark Zusak

Call it the hangover caused by the 'Room' or the fact that I spent more time on Netflix rather than my Kindle, but I must say that this one took me a long time. My saying this should not reflect on the novel, it was more to do with me than the novel.

The Book Thief is an unusual novel. For starters atleast I haven't heard anybody give voice to 'Death' before. You might imagine that 'Death' talking would be sad, morose and outright cold. But hey, not this 'Death'. This Death has a certain swagger to it. It is just like one of us, not really in love with its job, over-worked and desperately in need for a vacation which it cannot get because there isn't any back-up!

The setup of the novel is Nazi Germany and the timeframe is the Holocaust and the Second World War No doubt Death felt so over-worked! Death narrates the story of one Liesel Meminger. This orphaned girl who travels to Molching to the home of her foster parents – the Hubermanns. The more I think about it the more I am tempted to compare this with the diary of Anne Frank. Even this is a tale of a girl who finds herself faced with adversity and takes help of words to tell her tale.

The life on Himmel Street is painted with such real colors that you start identifying with the characters. There are episodes after episodes which make a mark on you and convey so much symbolically. Death seems to have a heart but has to do the heartless.  

If you ever want to pick a Holocaust novel, I would strongly suggest this one. It is not all that gory or graphic but it sure leaves you wondering as to does Death also have feelings!

The last line of the novel is the most telling. It is where Death says : Humans haunt me!!!

Next read:  American Gods : Neil Gaiman

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Wednesday

It resides right in the middle of the work week, hidden away from the 'gloomy' Monday and equally distant from the 'happening' Friday.  But more often than not it is the Wednesday which is the toughest day of the week to get by.  I have always felt that Monday has had its unfair share of disrepute. I agree it being the first day of the week, what after an amazing weekend, but not each and every Monday is like that. I mean there must be occasions where you really want to get to Monday and get that thing started at office or get to Monday so that you can swap some healthy office gossip with your peers, or maybe get to Monday just to get past an otherwise dull weekend. Monday most often has a flavor of excitement to it, for it is a start of something new. Yet pop culture associates it with a half-asleep clerk hanging onto his morning coffee for dear life!!!

Wednesday is the one who got away. It is poised exactly in the middle. It is the day when stuff shifts into high gear more so because the deadlines are to be met by the last day of the week. If there is one day we should absolutely hate then it must be Wednesday. Remember how you had to put in extra hours on Friday to meet the deadline- well blame Wednesday, for I bet that was when you started realistically thinking about the deadline anyways. Wednesday reminds me of that middle portion or the innings in a 50-over ODI, where slower bowlers/spinners are operating on both ends and the motive is not to take wickets but just to stymie the flow of runs. Also the batsmen are in no hurry either, for they have already scored at a healthy rate earlier, when the fielders were in the circle and now they are much content to just get the singles and the doubles wait until the final overs come into play before injecting excitement in the game.

Today is a Wednesday and things are no different.  It is a bigger drag than Monday, and yet no one has anything to say about it. I know it is too little too late for Wednesday to be castigated and Monday to be brought back to its full glory, but let it be known that there is at least somebody who despises Wednesday more than the Monday!!!

Friday, February 01, 2013

The Urban Squirrel

Just when you think that maybe this is the worst it can get and that tomorrow will be a warm sunny day, an overnight blizzard dumps inches of snow curdling any thoughts of enthusiasm. That is what has been happening off late. Not that you will see my frolicking about on the sidewalks of because the sun is out in its full glory, but then atleast I will be cheerful enough to get to office for once. If wishes were horses…

I must give credit to the human body. It sure learns to adapt to what is thrown at it. Looking at the 'weather.com' app has become a daily ritual. Not only because it makes for good conversation, but also because you can be mentally prepared to face the elements. I know this is illogical, but then I have come to believe that temperatures in Fahrenheit are colder than the same in Celsius!!! For once the feelings have gained importance because the 'Feels like' column on the 'weather.com' app is what true feelings are all about.

 It is just amazing to think that in this day and age when I think of my life in Des Moines, I am reminded of a squirrel – The Urban Squirrel. Allow me to explain.

The squirrel as I understand is a hoarder. It comes out when the weather is agreeable and forages, collecting whatever it is it eats and saving it all for a rainy day, in my case a snowy day. Now when I think of it I am no different. I forage for food, collecting items from Walmart or the Indian store and yeah I sure am a hoarder, especially in this weather. Not to mention, only when the weather is agreeable do I plan my journey to Walmart and the Indian store. Items like milk, bread, eggs are hoarded for that snowy day when more often than not I run out of veggies to cook and maybe rotis as well. In all of this my respect for rice and dal and ofcourse the variety of beans has reached sky high!!! There are days when I think I should come up with an elaborate ritual to honor the uncooked pasta which is a savior in its own way, or wear a crown made of eggshells for they serve a much higher purpose than we give them credit for.

All said and done, I do see that it is going to turn warmer over the weekend. Maybe then the squirrel can come out again and do its thing and be ready for the next snowy day!!!!